In the first round of Wimbledon, for many the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, 13 of the 32 tennis players were eliminated with the best positions in the ranking (the so -called “series heads”), and 10 of the best 32 tennis players. It is a record for the male Wimbledon scoreboard, and an equaled record for the Grand Slam tournaments, the four most important of tennis: also in 2004 at the Australian Open they came out in the first round 13 seeded heads. There are really many, in short, and it means that there have been many surprising games, in which tennis players and tennis players with a far worse position in the ranking have beaten some of the best in the world (128 men and 128 women participate, and the scoreboard is built so that the best do not face each other in the first shifts).
Among the others, the number 3 of the world Alexander Zverev (from number 72 Arthur Rinderknech), the number 7 Lorenzo Musetti (from the number 126 Nikolz Basilashvili), the number 9 Daniil Medvedev (from the number 64 Benjamin Bonzi) were eliminated. The number 2 Coco Gauff (against 42 Dayana Yastremska), the number 3 Jessica Pegula (against the number 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto) and the number 5 Zheng Qinwen (against the number 81 Katerina Siniakova) came out in the female scoreboard.
These eliminations have several explanations, some municipalities such as the unpredictability of an area such as grass and the general medium level of tennis players and tennis players who are not at the top of the ranking, and other more specific, which concern individuals match-up (i.e. the way in which the game of a tennis player stands out with that of his opponent) and the state of form not excellent of some of the best.
In professional tennis you play little on the grass. The tournaments on the grass begin in early June (when, however, many tennis players are still playing on the red earth of Roland Garros) and end up in mid -July. Very often the players arrive in Wimbledon, the only one of the Grand Slam tournaments held on the grass, having played a tournament at most, therefore a few games, on this surface. After his elimination Daniil Medvedev, who, moreover, is a good player on the grass, he pointed out to him in a polemical way (as he is in his style): “Fuck the grass. How do we be ready for this surface if we only play for three weeks a year? “He said.
It is not only the few games that make the grass less familiar for tennis players and tennis players, but also the characteristics of the surface itself. Being a natural surface, the grass is necessarily imperfect, and changes continuously. As the atmospheric conditions vary, but also only when it is trampled by the tennis players, to the point that the grass of the fields at the end of a tournament is never the same as the beginning. On the grass, the ball splashes in a way that makes it even faster than on concrete, but with a very low and often unpredictable rebound (although according to many insiders in recent years Wimbledon’s grass has changed a little).
– Read also: In Wimbledon there is no longer the grass of the past
Then there are specific circumstances. Coco Gauff has recently won the Roland Garros, but the grass has never been the surface in which it is best expressed in the best way: it has won us in all 21 games, has never won a tournament on grass and Wimbledon has never gone beyond the fourth round (the round of 16). Zverev for months that he has fluent results and cannot play at his best, it is wrong above all with the straight and cannot take the initiative in matches that in theory could dominate: he suffered a lot against the French rinderknech, less strong but capable of moments of great exaltation in which he risks more difficult blows.
The Highlights of Rinderknech’s victory against Zverev, in a game played on two days (he had been suspended on 1-1 for the curfew)
Even Medvedev, Matteo Berrettini and Holger Rune, three of the series heads eliminated in the first round, are in quite negative periods (for caps especially for physical reasons and linked to his continuous accidents). On the contrary, Musetti came from excellent results (three semifinals below on the red earth, and the Wimbledon semifinal last year), but also from an injury, and in the last month he had not even played a game. Against an not excellent player in technique but with heavy blows such as the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who has pulled strong throughout the game, Musetti has struggled to hold the rhythm, also due to the heat that is in Wimbledon in these days.
Among the standard heads, even Alexander Bublik was eliminated, who was one of the most fit tennis players, is among the few to play very well on the grass and had just won the German Halle tournament on this surface, beating among others the number 1 in the world Jannik Sinner.
In general, however, there are very few tennis players and truly constant tennis players: considering how long and exhausting the season is, it is quite normal to have empty passages, and being able to always win against lower opponents (as Jannik Sinner does continuously) is a rather exceptional thing. Carlos Alcaraz himself, one of the two best tennis players in the world and the most fit of the moment, has undergone some unexpected defeats in the past, and in the first round he needed 5 sets to beat the thirty -eight year old Fabio Fognini, who at his last game in Wimbledon played in an exceptional way.
In a very demanding sport on a physical and mental level, like tennis, in short, a “crooked day” is enough to compromise a tournament that perhaps, with the passing of the days, could have become positive, especially at the female level, where the Grand Slam tournaments are played in the best of the 3 sets and not, as in the male, in the best of the 5 (where is it therefore more difficult that there were unexpected results). In this sense, if there is a surface where all these labors emerge and that there are many surprises, this is precisely the grass.
Jessica Peguula, who even a few days earlier had won the WTA 500 of Bad Homburg on the grass, after losing against Cocciaretto said that “it is really difficult to play on the grass” and that “who knows, if I had managed to win, maybe I would have come to the second week and that game would have become decisive for me”: sometimes on this surface it takes very little to condition a game and therefore all a tournament.
As always in the long Tournaments of the Grand Slam (which for those arriving at the bottom last two weeks), and above all on a surface to which everyone is a little less used to, it is in short essential to maintain the concentration and be able to win at the first rounds even when you do not play the best, to become familiar with the grassy soil and raise the level of game in the game: it is what has succeeded for example in Alcaraz against Fognini, but also at the number 5 in the Taylor Fritz world, Winner in the fifth set against Giovanni Mpesh Perricard of a game that was even divided over two days (because of the famous Wimbledon curfew, which prevents you from playing after 11pm).
